Am a big fan of Charlie Chaplin, have been for over a decade now. Many films and shorts of his are very good to masterpiece, and like many others consider him a comedy genius and one of film's most important and influential directors.
It is hard to not expect a lot after not long before Chaplin had one of his earliest career highs in 'The Kid'. 'Nice and Friendly' was a big disappointment, it's interesting as a curio but it is down there with the likes of 'Triple Trouble' and the worst of Chaplin's Keystone period as one of his misfires. As said with many of his post-Keystone efforts, it shows a noticeable step up in quality though from his Keystone period, where he was still evolving and in the infancy of his long career. The Essanay and Mutual periods were something of Chaplin's adolescence period where his style had been found and starting to settle. After Mutual the style had properly settled and the cinematic genius emerged. It is hard to believe that 'Nice and Friendly' came from this period, it was not intended to be released to the public and does have a home movie feel.
'Nice and Friendly' has a few redeeming values. The best thing about it is Chaplin, who brings gusto and professionalism to his limited screen time and material.
There are a few mildly amusing moments and visually it is competent enough, far from primitive or rough.
Unfortunately, the main issues are that the story is very flimsy, what there is is contrived and predictable, and most of the first portion is slow and uninteresting, with it picking up a little when Chaplin comes into the picture too late to properly salvage things. It also is not very funny, a few mildly amusing moments but mostly it's not imaginative or particularly well timed and the material is far from fresh.
Didn't get a lot out of the supporting cast, which lack comic timing, ease and charm, and didn't see the need for Jackie Coogan who has little to do. The charm is missing and so is anything worth investing in. Although Chaplin does his best in terms of performance, in terms of directing this is one of his going-through-the-motions endeavours.
In conclusion, a misfire during a period where Chaplin had fully settled. 4/10 Bethany Cox
